Constitutional Fragility – Autonomy as a Foundational Constitutional Principle

The political and administrative autonomy of the Azores does not constitute a mere form of administrative decentralization, nor simply a technique of territorial governance. Since the adoption of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic in 1976, regional autonomy has become an integral component of the very constitutional architecture of the Portuguese State. It emerged as one of the constituent legislature’s most fundamental responses to reconciling national unity with the geographical distinctiveness of the Atlantic archipelagos—as had always been the case, in accordance with the historical modus operandi that seemed almost to foreshadow this constitutional settlement.

The significance accorded to autonomy is expressed with particular clarity in Article 288 of the Constitution, which includes the political and administrative autonomy of the Azores and Madeira among the substantive limits to constitutional revision. This was no accidental choice. The framers intended to endow the autonomous regime with enhanced constitutional protection, placing it alongside the other foundational principles of the Portuguese constitutional order: national independence, fundamental rights, the separation of powers, local self-government, and the independence of the judiciary.

The inclusion of regional autonomy within this catalogue makes clear that it was never conceived as a temporary expedient or a circumstantial political arrangement. On the contrary, it was understood as an essential element in the constitutional architecture of Portuguese democracy itself.

Yet the constitutional significance of autonomy should not lead to absolutist interpretations regarding its historical permanence. No human political institution is immutable. European constitutional history demonstrates that systems once regarded as enduring have undergone profound transformation—or have even been supplanted by entirely different institutional models. Constitutional stability has always depended upon the continued existence of the political, social, and cultural conditions capable of sustaining both its legitimacy and its endurance.

Consequently, Azorean autonomy must be understood simultaneously as a constitutional achievement and as a political reality whose survival depends continually upon its ability to demonstrate political usefulness, institutional effectiveness, and democratic legitimacy.

The Legal Reach of Article 288

Article 288 of the Constitution provides that constitutional amendment laws must respect certain substantive limits. Among these, as noted above, stands the political and administrative autonomy of the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. At first glance, this provision appears to confer an absolute constitutional guarantee.

Constitutional scholarship, however, has long demonstrated that these substantive limits should not be interpreted simplistically. Their existence means that constitutional revisions may not directly abolish the protected principles. It does not necessarily follow, however, that the concrete substance of those principles must remain forever unchanged.

The very evolution of the Azorean autonomous regime illustrates this reality.

Since 1976, several constitutional revisions have significantly altered important aspects of regional autonomy without ever being regarded as violations of the substantive limitation established by Article 288. This fact is of considerable constitutional importance, for it demonstrates that the constitutional protection afforded to autonomy does not preclude the gradual transformation of the autonomous regime itself.

Autonomy may continue to exist in formal constitutional terms while simultaneously undergoing profound changes in the manner in which it fulfills its fundamental purposes. It is precisely within this space—between formal permanence and material transformation—that the problem of institutional erosion emerges.

And it is this process that we shall demonstrate in the next segment.

Arnaldo Ourique is a specialist on the autonomy of the Azores, with years of research and publications.